A physical broadcast channel (PBCH) is defined in Long Term Evolution (LTE) Release-8/Release-9/Release-10/Release-11. A cell-specific reference signal is adopted for demodulation for PBCH. When accessing a cell, a user equipment UE obtains basic information necessary for accessing the cell by detecting PBCH. The basic information carried by PBCH includes a downlink system bandwidth, the number of transmitting antennas, a system frame number, etc.
Carriers of new carrier types (NCT) are defined in LTE Release-11. In a carrier of the new carrier type, density of the cell-specific reference signals is decreased to reduce interference of the cell-specific reference signals to other cells. Cell-specific reference signals are transmitted only in some normal downlink subframes. Therefore, there may be no cell-specific reference signal in a subframe transmitting PBCH, and the PBCH channel can not be demodulated by the cell-specific reference signal. Therefore, the PBCH can not be transmitted in the carrier of the new carrier type, and the PBCH needs to be sent by another carrier. Thus, if a UE wants to access a carrier of the new carrier type, the UE can only access the carrier of the new carrier type through a PBCH of the carrier of the new carrier type which is sent by another carrier.